A lawyer from Cape Elizabeth was sworn in Friday as a judge on the First U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals.

PORTLAND, Maine _ William Kayatta was originally nominated by President Barack Obama more than a year ago but his Senate confirmation was stalled by election-year politics despite an endorsement from the Senate Judiciary Committee.

Sandra Lynch, Presiding Judge of the First Circuit, called this afternoon's investiture ceremony an extraordinarily joyous occasion, something she says fairly rare for circuit court judges.

"Every time we sit as a court we are going to make half the people in front of us very happy and the other half not so happy, but, on this occasion, we know we are going to make everyone very happy," Lynch said.

Kayatta replaces Judge Kermit Lipez of Maine, who had been on the court since 1998.